Kids Who Die, Langston Hughes
A Tribute to the Movement (Narrated by Danny Glover)
This is for the kids who die,
Black and white,
For kids will die certainly.
The old and rich will live on awhile,
As always,
Eating blood and gold,
Letting kids die.
Kids will die in the swamps of Mississippi
Organizing sharecroppers
Kids will die in the streets of Chicago
Organizing workers
Kids will die in the orange groves of California
Telling others to get together
Whites and Filipinos,
Negroes and Mexicans,
All kinds of kids will die
Who dont believe in lies, and bribes, and contentment
And a lousy peace.
Of course, the wise and the learned
Who pen editorials in the papers,
And the gentlemen with Dr. in front of their names
White and black,
Who make surveys and write books
Will live on weaving words to smother the kids who die,
And the sleazy courts,
And the bribe-reaching police,
And the blood-loving generals,
And the money-loving preachers
Will all raise their hands against the kids who die,
Beating them with laws and clubs and bayonets and bullets
To frighten the people
For the kids who die are like iron in the blood of the people
And the old and rich dont want the people
To taste the iron of the kids who die,
Dont want the people to get wise to their own power,
To believe an Angelo Herndon, or even get together
Listen, kids who die
Maybe, now, there will be no monument for you
Except in our hearts
Maybe your bodiesll be lost in a swamp
Or a prison grave, or the potters field,
Or the rivers where youre drowned like Leibknecht
But the day will come
You are sure yourselves that it is coming
When the marching feet of the masses
Will raise for you a living monument of love,
And joy, and laughter,
And black hands and white hands clasped as one,
And a song that reaches the sky
The song of the life triumphant
Through the kids who die.